They’re a crucial public resource, but cities don’t manage or maintain them well. There is plenty they could be doing.
Governments make it too hard to access it at the scale needed to identify patterns and perform analysis across large numbers of records. There are ways to provide genuine transparency.
Most jurisdictions don’t know how much they spend on fuel and electricity across the enterprise. Figuring it out is a prerequisite for managing volatile prices.
Roadways that were designed to move commuters at breakneck speed are dangerous and hamper business. Starting with a hard look at one-way streets, cities are trying to turn their thoroughfares back into something more than speedways.
The lack of oversight of contracted work is commonplace. It’s important to track things early, before audits uncover problems.
America’s power transmission system has vast unused capacity. Optimizing it can make it much more efficient without requiring costly new infrastructure. Virginia policymakers are showing the way.
Secession talk has always been with us, but the last time anything like that happened was in 1863. Don’t look for a chunk of New Mexico to move to Texas.
Medicaid is a lifeline for people returning from incarceration but there are too many hurdles, and new work requirements will make things worse. Governments need to take some important steps now.
It’s about competence. To build residents’ trust, cities need to focus on delivering core services efficiently, setting measurable standards and meeting them consistently.
More and more, cities are paying hefty fees for private attorneys to take big businesses to court. In the end, though, they’re making life more costly for their residents.
Too many Americans can’t pass a basic civic literary quiz, and we’re doing little about it. How can they evaluate the actions of government if they don’t have a solid idea of how it functions?
Errors in grant programs are everywhere — but they don’t fall along party lines.
The structured environments where teenagers once gathered are disappearing, leaving a vacuum now filled by spontaneous, often-chaotic behavior. We need to bring those spaces back, and young people need to be part of the solution.
Some of the region’s metros are showing surprising population numbers, a documented awakening in places that most of the country has grown accustomed to ignoring.
The departure of a community’s major employer is about more than job losses. Finance managers need a fiscal strategy.
Algorithmic price setting and wage discrimination are threats to privacy and well-being, as well as to state revenues. Some states are moving to protect workers and consumers.
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